


Not What He Seemed

by Artistic_Arteries



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Angst, Autistic Ford Pines, Blood and Violence, Canon Divergence - Not What He Seems, HE IS BASICALLY CANONALLY AUTISTIC AND YOU CAN'T CHANGE MY MIND., Injury, Stangst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-23
Updated: 2018-10-30
Packaged: 2019-08-06 07:26:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,590
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16383857
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Artistic_Arteries/pseuds/Artistic_Arteries
Summary: Ford steps out of the portal injured.





	1. Not What Stan Expected

The world is blinding for only a moment while they’re all suspended in the air, all at once the room grows dark, quiet, and heavy as the machine turns off and gravity is pulling them all down with thuds against the hard concrete. Did it work? Is he back? Stan looks up and sees him, the author of the journals, creator of the interdimensional portal: Stanford Pines. Everyone looks up at the man whom, with the backdrop of the portal, looks heroic and intimidating. The figure, despite how intimidating he looks, takes a step and stumbles slightly; an action Stanley knows, from his time as a homeless criminal, recognizes as an action one takes when they’re injured, on the verge of passing out, and trying not to appear vulnerable to attack. Stanley is up on his feet and rushing towards his brother just in time for him to take a wrong step and collapses to his hands and knees. 

“Stanford!” He yelps in alarm. The kids share a look in the corner of his eye. He gets to his brother and a second later Soos gets to him too. Stanford pushes himself up and into a sitting position before scooting himself away from them. Now recovering from the blinding effect of the portal, Stan can see his hands are covered in blood, Ford covering his stomach with one hand while the other is suddenly brandishing a knife he pulls out of a holster on his leg. Ford holds out the knife with a shaking hand pointed at Stan, who gets an annoying sense of déjà vu. 

“Stay back!” Ford yells. Even now, while pulling a knife at Stan, Stan is so happy to hear his brother’s voice. Ecstatic to hear his voice even when it’s yelling at him to stay away. The last time he heard that voice was when it was screaming at him to save him, the moments before that, the voice was telling Stan that he had ruined both of their lives. He always was able to replicate Ford’s voice, had to on the few occasions he had to talk to any family members who knew Ford and Stan weren’t the same person. But after not hearing it for so many years and hearing the changes in his own voice, he became worried that Ford wouldn’t sound the same as he had years ago. Ford’s voice was slightly more gravelly than it was, and also frantic, but that was normal for Ford. His voice also sounded pained and scared. Stan hates hearing pain in any of his family’s voices. 

“Stanford, it’s me, Stanley. You remember me, right?” Soos looks up at him for only a second, but not with a look of confusion, but rather the look a student would get when they’d get a question right. Soos was always clever enough and perceptive enough to see through certain lies Stan dished out, he’s certainly a lot smarter than many give him credit for. Stan doesn’t take a step forward, he moves slowly and calmly. He knows how it feels to be vulnerable and cornered, so he carefully raises his hands and shows Ford that he doesn’t have anything in his hands.

“I won’t hurt you Ford, everything’s gonna be alright. Now, I need to see where that blood is coming from.” Stan doesn’t move, but Ford still reacts by trying to scoot back more, his back hitting a piece of machinery that had been hanging on the ceiling of the cavern that houses the portal. 

“Don’t hurt him!” Mabel, fearing the man with a knife pointed at Stan, yells from halfway across the room. Stan reaches an arm behind him to wave her into being quiet. The yell and the movement making Stanford try to run to a corner of the room farther away from Stan and Soos, only to get a few feet before he stumbles again. Crashing to the floor fully with a yell of pain. 

“Ford! You’re gonna hurt yourself worse!” Stan rushes to his side and sees that Ford has hurt himself worse with the knife he was running with (the age old “don’t run with scissors” mom saying was clearly better used when talking about knifes.) The knife cut into his side a bit, right above where his hip should be. Ford struggles, but Stan is able to take the bloodied knife and throw it away from them. Ford tries fighting him more but is growing weaker. 

“Ford stop! Let me see! It’s me, your brother, come on just trust me!” Stan is trying to make Ford stop moving so much by keeping his arms together and closer to his chest. Ford’s struggles get weak enough despite the strong muscles Stan can feel while fighting with Ford. 

“I thought he was my brother too!” Ford tries to growl, but it comes out breathy and weak. “He’s the one who… hurt me…” Ford is panting with shallow breaths. Soos, seeing this, rushes over to the elder twins’ sides and begins searching for wounds on Ford’s body. Soos peels back the sweater Ford is wearing and they both see the large bloody gash on his abdomen and the smaller but still serious cut on his side above his hip. Stan uses one hand to hold Ford’s weakened arms to his chest while he uses the other to remove his coat jacket, switching hands temporarily to remove the other arm, and presses the fabric to Ford’s wound. 

“Stan what is going on?! Who is that?” The kids are asking too many questions at exactly the wrong time. Stan will have to explain later, after they get Ford in the clear. Thinking of that, he remembers why they can’t bring Ford to a proper doctor while the feds are upstairs making a mess of his house. 

“I can’t explain right now! Both of you, stay back, you hear me?!” Stan yells to them without looking back, focusing on stopping the bleeding. “Soos we need to get him to a hospital, but I don’t know how we’re going to do that when we have the feds upstairs, keep pressure on the wounds while I try to take care of them.” 

Soos applies pressure like his Abuelita had taught him to do if he ever got a cut. Stanford stopped struggling, so Stan takes off his headwear thing. His brother has a few scars on his face, and his skin is pale and thin looking, but other than that, they’re still nearly identical. 

“I have something that might help!” Dipper says, digging through the backpack he had with him. He pulls out a strange looking gun with a light bulb at the end instead of a barrel. “It’s a memory gun, it’s able to erase memories of whatever you type into it!” 

Stan didn’t care where Dipper would find a thing like this, he’d ask later, but for now, he took the gun and looked over the display. He turned the dial a bit and it let him write out a letter on the little screen, so he wrote out ‘STANFORD PINES’, that should do it, if the thing worked. 

“You’re sure this thing will work?” Stan asked. 

“Yeah, it should work, we, kinda used it on a bunch of guys a few wee-“ Dipper started to explain, but Stan didn’t have time for the story now. 

“We’ll talk about that later, right now, we need to get Ford to the hospital.” Stan was on a deadline right now, explanations about everything or anything could wait. 

With another look back at his family, Stan walked out of the room and into the elevator, gun in hand, and if it didn’t work, brass knuckles ready to go.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "You know what they say, if you want a fanfiction done, write it yourself." I should be doing my ASL homework due tomorrow, but you know what? I couldn't find many fanfictions about this so I decided to make one myself. Also I did not read this through again before posting it and I don't care. 
> 
> I might continue this but honestly I'm a college student who runs a DnD group without any official or unofficial campaign guide so it might not happen. That being said, give me feedback and I'll see what I can do.


	2. Get Ford Back

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stan takes care of the agents and reflects on his life.

Stan jogged up the stairs near the vending machine door as he ran through the mantra checklist he created during the elevator ride up: Shoot everyone with the memory gun, get Stanford to a hospital, or, beat everyone into dreamland, then get Stanford to a hospital. So far that was the plan, everything else could wait. His whole life was one mantra checklist after another but all of them had one thing in common: Finish the boat, finish highschool, be with Ford forever; Get a million dollars, be welcomed back into his family, get _Ford_ back; Survive, just survive a little longer, get **_Ford_** back; Fix the portal, don’t lose the house, get **_Ford_** back. Every step of his life, he was always striving to be with Ford, he messed it up before, but now he’s back and Stan won’t let him slip through his fingers again. He won’t be able to withstand another near miss, he was so close to having him slip away again when Mabel’s hand was on that button. He doesn’t know what he would’ve done if she had pressed it, he doesn’t want to think about it, he needs to move now or else he might be without Ford again.  
  
Stanley kicks open the vending machine, like he had during the zombie outbreak they had only a week and a half ago. The kids had been in danger then, his family, and now his family is in danger again, and just like then, he has to bust some heads to keep them safe. Four federal agents wearing riot gear turn their heads sharply to see him, he aims and fires twice at two of them before another tries to tackle him, he ducks as low as he can and the guy goes high, when he’s directly over Stan’s back, Stan launches the guy up and over onto Stan’s other side, using the man’s momentum to flip him onto his head and then fall onto his back. Stan shoots him when he’s down just to be sure he’ll stay down and takes aim at the fourth guy who had been taking aim with his taser gun.  
  
Two agents from the living room heard the noise and came to investigate just in time for Stan to shoot both. He kept shooting them as he came across them, luckily not having to deal with any of them using his taser on him. He’s been tazed before, and while not as bad as being pepper sprayed, still hurts a lot. He goes through the house quickly twice and deems all the agents’ memories wiped. He really hoped this thing works like he thought it would with a name like “memory gun”. Of course, it could possibly be giving the agents Stanford’s memories, but he’s pretty sure that nothing like that could work, no matter how science fiction you summoned into existence. The agents were all starting to walk around confused but it didn’t matter to him so he goes back downstairs as subtly as possible.  
  
Dipper, Mabel, and Soos are all couched around an unconscious Stanford when he comes into the room. He seems to be noticing a pattern in how much the kids obey him. Soos is still holding his coat jacket to Ford’s stomach, so that’s good, hopefully he hasn’t lost too much blood.  
  
“Okay I took care of them, kids, go into my room, push the antilabbit’s antler back into place, you’ll find a box on the bottom shelf with a bunch of fake IDs, bring me the whole box as fast as you can, alright? Soos, run ahead of me when we get out of the elevator and start up my car, or yours, whosever is closer to the gift shop’s door. I’ve got Ford.” Stan slid his arms under Ford’s shoulders and knees and lifted him, he’s heavier than he was as a teenager on[ their 17th birthday](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12145923/chapters/28319712) when Stan had threw him over his shoulder and carried him out to his car to celebrate with a half pack of beers he was able to get, but still light enough for Stan to carry him upstairs.  
  
“NOW” He yells when Soos and the kids don’t move. They all run to the elevator and he gets in last. No one talks for the whole ride up and he’s honestly okay with that. He needs a few minutes. They get to the top and the kids run ahead of him followed by Soos shortly after Stan gets himself and Ford out of the elevator. He gets himself and Ford up the stairs and through the vending machine door before he remembers that he left the agents in his house with no memories of where they are. He doesn’t have time for them, so he yells as loudly as he can: “Mystery Shack will be closing in 10 minutes!” hopefully they’re pretty dumb and that’ll get them out.  
  
He carries Ford to Soos’ running car and puts him in the front middle seat before climbing in. The kids show up shortly after and they climb over Soos’ side to sit in the back seat. Soos gets in and buckle up and drives swiftly away from the Mystery Shack. Stan applies pressure to Ford’s stomach and checks the rest of Ford’s body for wounds. The car is silent for only about two seconds of driving when Mabel starts demanding answers.  
  
“What the what is going on?! You have a brother?! You aren’t Stan Pines?!” Stan sighs, he guesses he’ll have to explain everything. He owes it to them by now.  
  
“Alright, it all started a lifetime ago.”  
  
  


________________________________________________________________

  
  
  
By the time he’s about finished, they get to the hospital. Stan digs through the box of IDs for a second and finds the most crime free one he had. Stan pulls himself and Ford out of the truck and runs to the hospital doors.  
  
“HEY WE NEED SOME HELP.” He yells once the doors open for him. Gravity Falls General Hospital is a relatively small hospital and doesn’t get many seriously injured folks, being in a sleepy town after all. So when he bursts in with a bloody, unconscious man in his arms, the nurses are very obviously shocked for a second and a half before they rush to work. Someone brings a gurney to him and he puts Ford onto it.  
  
“What happened? How long has he been unconscious? What’s his name and blood type?..” Stan is bombarded with questions and he answers as best as he can, ‘he doesn’t know what happened, he just showed up at the Mystery Shack like that.’, ‘only about ten minutes’, ‘He’s my brother, Stanley Pines.’, etc.

Ford is whisked away into surgery and Soos and the kids are behind him in the waiting room. When Stan is done with all the questions he walks back into the waiting room and sits heavily into a chair.

He can’t lose Ford. He just can’t.

The others sit next to him, but he doesn’t say anything.

“He’ll be alright! Pines are tough!” Mabel says, trying to lift his spirits. He gives her a tight smile. He knows that it doesn’t reach his eyes, but he doesn’t think he could lie that much right now. Mabel sees through his smile and he sees her shoulders droop. She turns to Dipper and grabs a hold of his hand. No one speaks again.

An hour and a half later a nurse comes out and everyone stands up.  
  
He tells them that they managed to clean and close the wound but that his blood levels were very low, so he’s having a blood transfusion now. He says that Ford will be asleep for a while, but that he should wake up in a few hours.

They’re allowed to visit two at a time, but Stan stays in there the whole time, so it’s basically one person at a time. After everyone has come to visit, which isn’t very long since they don’t know Ford much, Stan asks Soos to take the kids home. They leave together while Stan stays at Ford’s side, where he belonged.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow I updated this? and only two days after the initial post? Thats a new record for me. I already have the next chapter ready and it's 2000 words. I think I have a few plans for this past the initial first parts, so keep an eye out for updates and tell me what you think.


	3. Wake up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stan waits for Ford to wake up

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so this was gonna be chapter four but then I thought chapter four needed to be chapter three and that chapter three (which I had already written by the time I posted chapter two,) needed to be chapter four. So here's the pre show to the chapter I was excited about uploading

Stan sat in the hospital room just watching his brother, memorizing the face he’s basically seen in the mirror for years, but with a few differences. Ford had scars, lots of them.  He had scars all over his body as well, old knife or shank wounds from his ten long years in exile, a few bullet wounds too, some were treated by a professional, but most were done either by himself or by some back alley “doctor”. Ford’s scars ranged from years old or only a few hours ago. He has a thin scar along his hair line, it would be impossible to see if he wasn’t lying down, but it was still there and looks intentional. Stan doesn’t know what to think about the possibility that Ford had brain surgery, so he tries not to think about it at all.

 

Ford’s arms are covered in tattoos too, he can’t tell what some of them were, as some are too scarred over to see, but there are a few that look like they were put there within the last 10 years that aren’t too bad off. There’s one large one that looks like a constellation with a full space background, he thinks its Gemini. There are math ones, a few little drawings of spaceships, aliens, or science symbols. He sees one on the side of his neck that’s of a star that says, “hey now, I’m an all-star” and he snickers a little at it.  


  
But the one that Stan really focuses on is the small picture of the sea at sunset, a sail boat silhouetted in the glow of the bright sun resting on the inside of Ford’s right arm, below the elbow. It’s only about 3 centimeters wide, and two centimeters long, but the detail is so clear, obviously not done with any of the technology they have on earth. He hadn’t been the only one thinking about their dream, then. He had seen the sail boats scribbled out in the journals, but he wasn’t sure if Ford ever thought more about the Stan-O-War since then. This proves that Ford had been thinking of it, at least a little. Maybe now that they were together again their dream would come true, Ford could research the weird things they find out at sea and Stan could be with Ford on the adventure of a lifetime.

 

He still can’t believe that this is happening.  
  
  
The beep of the heart monitor they have on Ford is a reminder of Ford’s condition.

 

Stan has to wonder what happened to his brother before he stepped through the portal, not to mention what he said about who hurt him. “I thought he was my brother too! He’s the one who hurt me” An imposter maybe? The portal went to other dimensions, so maybe there would be alternate versions of himself over there. Thinking about other versions of Ford trying to kill him is unnerving; he’s seen Ford angry before, especially that night in the basement, but he’s never thought Ford would kill him. Thinking on that night, Stan thinks maybe he isn’t so different than the other Stan, maybe there isn’t another Stan, maybe Ford is just talking about him pushing Ford into the portal. He did cause all this onto Ford, he is the one to hurt him.

 

Or maybe Ford has lost his mind. Either way, it’s still Stan’s fault. He threw Ford to the wolves for 30 years. If Ford has lost his mind- which is likely thinking back to the state Ford was in 30 years ago, what does he do now? He thinks of Old Man McGucket, how he lives in the dump with half a mind and no family who takes care of him. Not that he doesn’t have family who could take care of him, his son Tate has entirely disowned him, treats him like an animal. He lived on the streets long enough to meet some homeless schizophrenics, he’s seen how they’re treated. It’s one of the reasons he lends a helping hand to McGucket sometimes, giving him any spare socks he had, blankets he didn’t need, extra food whenever he could spare a few extra ingredients to make another serving. He wished he could do more, but he put all of his resources into the Mystery Shack and rebuilding the portal. If Ford has lost his mind, Stan will care for him. He doesn’t think Ford will be violent, but if he is, [he could repurpose the portal room into a safe apartment for Ford](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13718667/chapters/31515378). Soft walls, nothing breakable, nothing sharp.

 

He doesn’t know if he could do that to Ford, cage him in a padded cell like some One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest nightmare. The Ford he knew would hate being caged up where he couldn’t learn, explore, or create. His brother liked being alone a lot, but wherever he was, he needed something to keep his mind going at top speed, he always carried a book or notepad with him since he was a kid, always either reading or writing like he was running out of time for it. He might be able to put some books with soft book coverings on them, but who knows how much Ford will be able to read or understand? Would Ford even be Ford?  
  


Woah, step back, that’s a big IF that spiraled out of hand. He just needs to wait until Ford wakes up to know how he is mentally.

 

He can’t wait. He’s done so much waiting for a day like this to come, he’s had Ford for a few hours and they’ve barely talked. Now that he’s back he’s stuck in a hospital with 16 stitches holding together a wound he says he caused. He wants Ford to wake up and be okay again.

 

His eyes fall back to the sea tattoo in Ford’s arm.  


  
“Maybe things will work out” he says softly. Ford doesn’t move at all. “I hope you wake up soon, you know. So wake up, Ford, then we can get on with it.” Stan rubs his thumb over the tattoo and blinks back tears. He’s been without his brother for so long; far too long for any twins to be apart. There have been many people who have left his life, some left with good goodbyes, some were uneventful, but when Ford left, he left abruptly and unfairly. Out with a bang that left Stan screaming and weeping on the floor of the basement, left him waking up with a cry too many nights in the too many years Ford was gone for. He hopes that those won’t happen again since Ford was back.  
  
Stan decided that overthinking was Ford’s forte, so he tried to distract himself with the tv in the room. He kept it at low volume and put it on something that didn’t need sound to be entertaining: baby fights. About an hour after Ford came out of surgery a nurse came into the room, he had pale skin, short ginger hair and a trimmed beard, he wore black bottoms and a blue top as his scrubs, he was a bit chubby and was a few inches shorter than Stan.  
  
“Sorry to interrupt, I’m here to check his vitals, I’ll only a moment.” He spoke softly and hesitantly and stood in the doorway until he explained himself, he awkwardly went over to Ford and starting to write on the clipboard he brought in, looking up every few moments to look at some machine or look over his shoulder at Stan. The kid looked to be in his late 20’s, fresh in the industry.

 

“E-everything seems to be within healthy numbers, has he shown any signs of waking up yet?” he looked over towards Stan, trying to keep eye contact but he keeps fidgeting, looking back down at his papers.  
  
“Nothing yet, when should he wake up?” Stan wanted to take it easy on the kid, and not only because he’s taking care of Ford, but also because he reminds him of Ford when he was a kid. Lost in his own head and bad at social interaction.  
  
“He should wake up sometime within now and the next two hours, when he does, we’ll check his vitals again and hopefully get him home tonight or tomorrow morning.” He spoke more confidently when talking strictly about medicine related things, another thing Ford did, not being able to really talk to others unless it was about science, math, literature, DD&MD, or some other nerd thing. Stan realized that he was projecting Ford onto just about anyone and internally criticized himself for getting sappy and gross. It was different when he did it to Dipper, the kid not only acted and talked just like Ford when he was his age, but also looked so much like Ford that he wondered if he was more related to Ford than to Shermie.  
  
“Good to hear, thanks.” Stan wanted to bring Ford home as soon as possible, he’s been away for too long.  
  
“It’s not a problem, sir, I’ll be back every hour to check on him, if he wakes up just press this button right here, and if there’s an emergency press this red button.” The kid points to a blue button and then a red button over Ford’s bed and was about to leave when he seemed to catch himself and turn back to Stan, his face flushing a tiny amount in embarrassment. “Oh, my name is Jayden, by the way. If you need me for anything, I mean.”  
  
Nurse Jayden leaves and he goes back to watching the tv, looking over at Ford every now and then. Just a little bit longer. He’s halfway through the match he turned the tv on onto when he looks over to Stanford and sees him clenching his eyes shut and then opening them. Stan is at his side in a second.  
  
“Ford, hey there, Sixer.” Stan quietly says. Ford’s eyes snap to him and widen before he scoots back a bit and Ford just stares at Stan.

Then Ford starts breathing heavier and the heart rate monitor started beeping faster.  
  
“Ford?” Stan reached out for him, Ford flinched.  
  
“Stanley?” Ford’s voice is whispery, like he’s thinking out loud and not consciously speaking it. “Are you _my_ Stanley? Am- Am I in _my_ dimension?” Ford asked, his words sounding more like they were directed at Stan and not just said to himself.  
  
“Yeah Ford, I brought you home,” Stan tries to say it proudly, but his breath feels knocked out of him, so it sounds more watery and sappy.

“You restarted the portal… You- YOU COULD HAVE-“ Ford tries to sit up, but he stops and looks down at himself, now noticing the bandages covering his stomach. Ford lightly touches them and then looks around the room. Ford looks back down and mumbles an “Oh,”  
  
“You came out of that portal all banged up and bleeding… You passed out before you could tell me much, what happened?” Stan explained, keeping his voice quiet to not alert the nurses.

  
Ford shivers.


	4. Not What Ford Expected

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What happened to Ford on the other side of the portal. {This one is more violent, guys}

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was too excited about posting this chapter so I went a head and posted it now! 
> 
> TW FOR VIOLENCE YALL

Stanford is bleeding out, he needs to stop the bleeding but he's still being chased. He can't slow down or else he'll be killed, he can't keep running or else he'll plain out die. It's a word puzzle with consequences and the odds are stacked against him. He's always been a fan of word puzzles, problems of pure logic that came in newspapers or on the radio, but now that he's forced to work one out with adrenaline making his cognition and problem-solving skills nearly obsolete, he's not so much a fan.

 

"I'M GONNA FIND YOU STANFORD!" The voice of his pursuer echoes through the corridor, sending more adrenaline pumping through his body. He knows the voice well, as well as his own, he had trusted the face that matched his own and now he's running for his life. Stanley Pines is chasing him down to try to murder him.

 

Through the years he's met many versions of Stanley, and a few of himself, but he's never had many problems with any of them. There have been versions of Stanley that he owes his life to, [one was traveling with his Stanford ](http://hellmandraws.tumblr.com/post/172657445718/okay-but-au-in-which-they-both-go-through-the)and had saved him from a giant waterbear like creature from dimension T4Z/CK right as it was about to eat him. Another helped him steal a part he needed for his quantum destabilizer.

 

When he met this version of Stanley, he had assumed that he, like many of the other Stanleys he's met, would be jovial, mischievous, and have a rough affectionate personality like his own Stanley had had. What he didn't expect was the look of pure murderous intent. But by then he was too close to [Stanley,](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10987068/chapters/24468897) who had a sharp rusty stick of metal in his hands and was running towards him.

 

Stanford pulled out his gun and aimed but hesitated shooting at his brother. Stanley had been his best friend, and no matter how bad things got between them, he never wanted to kill him. This Stanley obviously didn't have the same feelings. He swung, and Ford dodged out of the way, but on the second swing Stanley slashed his stomach, the broken edge sharp enough for it to cut through his clothes and a few layers of skin. Ford tried to run backwards away from Stan but tripped after only a few paces, Stanley was on him in a second, flipping the stick in his hands and raising it high. Ford had just enough time to raise his arms to protect himself when Stan brought the iron tool onto his arms. Ford screamed in pain as he felt his bone fracture. Ford brought his legs to his chest and kicked Stanley as hard as he could before rolling over and pushing himself up with his other arm and started running.

 

He entered the first door he came across, trying to lose Stanley. He entered what appeared to be an empty lab like building, filled with dark gray corridors, identical rooms, and large cavernous rooms with tubes of various sizes filled with green goo and monstrous creatures. It's not the weirdest place he's been, that's for sure, and it'll help get away from Stan.

 

Ford thinks he gets a good distance away, so he checks his wounds. The gash on his stomach is bleeding a fair amount, he'll need to sew it up as soon as he gets away, and probably also get a tetanus shot. His arm is starting to bruise but hasn't started to swell yet and he can still move it so he thinks it's a very minor fracture. The main problem will be the bleeding, he needs to get to safety as soon as he can or risk passing out.

 

Ford hears footfall down the way he came and starts to run as quietly as possible, he's much older than this Stanley, maybe 20 or so years older, so he can't outrun him, especially when injured. He hears the foot fall get faster and he in turn starts running faster, but Stan is gaining on him. He takes a sharp turn into one of the rooms filled with tubes and starts weaving around the tubes to try to gain a bigger lead, and Stan breaks open one tube, the possibility radioactive goo spilling out onto the ground. His broken stick of metal- which Ford now realizes is an old crowbar with one end sharpened, gets stuck in the goo. Ford takes his chance and begins running again.

 

"COME BACK HERE YOU MONSTER" he hears Stanley screaming before he goes through the door. Ford is starting to feel light headed because of the blood loss, as well as the exhaustion from running. He knows that if he doesn't get out of this soon he might die.

 

He can't run much anymore, he needs to hide and look for an exit. He goes he jogs as fast as he can, his hurt arm against his stomach, opening and looking into rooms, hoping for a way out.

 

"I'M GONNA FIND YOU STANFORD!" Ford jumps with fear as the voice echoes down the hallway. He's going to die, isn't he? He doesn't know what to do and he's going to die. He can't think, there are no solutions for this problem. Well, he could kill Stan, he probably should, knowing he's done it to so many other Stanfords before him.. He needs to do it, he knows he needs to, but he hesitated before, what if he does it again and it costs him his life? Okay, he won't go after Stanley, but if he gets caught again he will.

 

He'll kill his brother

 

He really doesn't want to, he doubts he'll be able to, but he's done other things that he didn't think he'd be able to survive! Why not this?

 

 _Because it's killing his brother_!

 

Ford is going to die. He's going to die, and his head will become another notch in Stanley's belt

 

That's weird to say on multiple levels.

 

He hears footfall again, so he ducks into a room, opening and closing the door as quietly as he can. He turns around and it’s a long staircase down. With no other choice, he begins going down quietly. He goes through a door and he's met by a room with desks and what appear to be computers in this dimension. There's a small circular platform that he thinks is a teleportation pad, but he doesn't want to find out if it isn't.

 

There are no other doors in this room and as he's about to turn around and leave to look elsewhere he hears someone coming down the stairs. Stanford steps back to the platform and waits, hoping to not have to step onto the platform. The door opens, and he sees Stanley smile sickeningly.

 

"Please be a teleport" he says before stepping onto the platform. A bright flash of light overtakes his vision for a moment and when it clears he notices he's in a different room that has more platforms like the teleporter he stepped on a moment before. It's the perfect escape.

 

He forces his body to move despite the pain and fatigue he's feeling and walks to a teleporter. He's teleported to an empty room and realizes that this building is more disorienting than the pyramid temple in dimension 5U-SS and that coming in here was a mistake.

 

He walks through the door out of the room he was in and hears the teleporter go off behind him. How did he follow him?!

 

Oh.

 

Of course.

 

He's trailing blood.

 

He can really be so stupid sometimes!

 

Now he's going to die, isn't he?

 

Stanford cups his other hand over his stomach to keep the blood in better and steps through another door and nearly collapses against the wall next to it. He can't keep running and the edges of his vision is starting to haze.

He's just so tired.

 

He hears Stan on the other side of the door.

 

"Oh look, someone realized he was trailing blood. Oh well, you're not going to be able to survive the blood loss anyway. Serves you right for what you and pops did to me!" Stanford clenches his eyes shut at that. He regretted never reaching out to help his brother, he just didn't think about anyone or anything else other than himself. The Stan that saved him from the waterbear had told him that he was also kicked out of his house after the same incident with west coast tech happened to them, that Stan told him about him being homeless for those ten years. He mentioned some of the things he had to do to survive and remembered his Stanley mentioning some of the same things, like the thing about chewing through the trunk of a car.

 

"You both are MONSTERS. Sick, inhuman monsters who deserve to die." Stan was opening doors one by one getting closer and closer to the one he was hiding in. He was going to die.

 

"We were supposed to escape, remember? But instead you chose your fantasies over me! You used me, used me and threw me to the wolves the moment I built your escape FOR YOU!" Stanley slams the door next to his shut hard, the noise making him shake in fear. He's going to die!

 

"And the moment you need help? You call out for me to save you. I know you're not him; my Stanford, I killed him." Stanley laughs, and all his hair stands on end and he won't stop shivering. "I killed him and used his portal to go to a different dimension. Now I'm getting paid to hunt you down! But it doesn't feel like a job..." Stanford's heart stops. He's right there; right outside the door. "I'd do this just for the revenge." Stan opens the door and Ford stumbles to the other door, Stanley laughs in a low chuckle. Ford goes through the door and he's everything goes white.

  
  
He steps into the room and waits for his vision to clear but it’s still darkened. He hears a noise behind him and begins to limp his way forward again, desperate to get away when he falls down a foot or two and lands hard on his hands and knees.

  
  
“Stanford!” Stanley’s voice is in front of him and he reels back. He has no choice, he needs to kill his brother. He reaches for his gun and grab onto the handle but pulls out his knife, he thinks. He’s too delirious to think straight but he points whatever it at Stan to hopefully keep him back until his vision clears.

  
  
“Stay back!” He’s blacking out, isn’t he? No wait, he’s able to make out his arm at least. He starts to make out Stan in front of him and it takes a second to comprehend what he sees.

  
  
“Stanford, it’s me, Stanley. You remember me, right?” Stan’s holding his hands out as he’s speaking but everything’s weird. Why is Stan wearing a suit? Did he change? No that’s stupid. Why would he change. It's another Stan that wants him dead, they’ve got him surrounded.

  
  
“I won’t hurt you Ford, everything’s gonna be alright. Now, I need to see where that blood is coming from.” Don’t let him get close! Get away! He kicks away from Stan and he feels his back hit a wall or something, he wants to check what it is but he needs to watch Stan.

  
  
“Don’t hurt him!” He hears a high-pitched yell and Stan moves suddenly so he moves while Stan is distracted. He gets a few steps forward before collapsing, he feels a new pain adding to the pain in his stomach and lets out a yell.

  
  
“Ford! You’re gonna hurt yourself worse!” He hears Stan yell and suddenly Stan is fighting the knife away from him. Stan takes the knife and for a moment Ford is sure he’s about to die before Stan throws the knife to the other side of the room.

  
  
“Ford stop! Let me see! It’s me, your brother, come on just trust me!” Stan is holding him down and he can’t move! He can’t defend himself and he can’t escape! He’s going to die by not one brother’s hands, but by two! He trusted him! Why had he trusted him?

  
  
“I thought he was my brother too!” He’s too weak. He can’t keep fighting. “He’s the one who… hurt me…” He’s so tired. So tired.

  
Ford slept.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter is ready to go, so be watching for it! What did you guys think of this chapter, by the way? Is it violent enough to change the rating or warnings? Also, is anyone able to use the links when referencing other Gravity Falls fanworks? Is anyone getting the references that aren't within the fandom?


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